August 16, 2022

I wanted to share out minutes of last night’s meeting (see below), as well as four high-level items I want to highlight for everyone:

1. There will be another Hubbard Farms community dinner on Thursday, September 1 at 7pm in the community garden on Hubbard St. Caton Arreguin will send more info soon!

2. Janet Ray presented very early findings of a parking study that’s being undertaken in the neighborhood. There’s a community meeting coming up at Armando’s (2nd floor) on 9/14 at 7pm. Janet also requests that everyone please complete this survey!

– https://umich.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Y5nyTQ0yhyjCzI

3. Community information kiosks are coming to the City of Detroit, which will share info such as discovering local businesses, open spaces and more, getting real-time transit info, and seeing job boards, City of Detroit info, and community events. The initial siting of this was proposed at Bagley and 24th, but several voices last night recommended 18th and Bagley as a better location, or perhaps Clark Park. If you have further thoughts, please share them with: rking@ikesmartcity.com or ddpkiosks@downtowndetroit.org;.

4. Last but not least, our dear board president, Martha Potere, has resigned! Martha served this board ably and humbly for the last several years and we all thank her so much for her service!!!

Thanks,
Mike

Full minutes:

Hubbard Farms Neighborhood Association Minutes

August 16, 2022, 6:30pm-8pm

1. Welcome and Introductions

• Board: Matthew Fogarty, Mike Smith, Monte Martinez, Mary Clare Duran, Karina Odom,
• Residents: Caton Arreguin, Deb Sumner
• Other: Eva Torres (D6 DON), Josh Long (Downtown Detroit Partnership), Rich King (ike Smart City), Mark Thompson (ike Smart City), Janet Ray

President transition and board by-laws

• Don’t have quorum or Donovan here to discuss details. Will see if we get volunteers for the position via email.
• Janet – can we handle the vote over email?
• Janet – can we provide a salute, gift, or honor for Martha’s work?
• Mary Clare – Do officer positions need to be filled by other board members? How do we fill vacant board seats?

HFNA Board Survey results/upcoming goals (Martha as resident/handoff)

Neighborhood Kiosks (Eva Torres or colleague)

• DDP is celebrating year 100 of supporting the Greater Downtown.
• Kiosks done around the City at no cost to the City by ike Smart City.
• Kiosks will expand community messaging for a number of orgs and nonprofits beyond the City and DDP.
• Kiosks supported 100% through the advertising through them. No up-front cost to DDP or City of Detroit.
• Need a kiosk in each city council district.
• Considering a kiosk at Bagley and 24th.
• 3 main functions:

• Discovery

• Want to highlight the areas local to that kiosk.

Mobility

• Real-time transit info for all forms of transit. Buses, scooters, etc. Can either go directly to phone (none of personal info is kept) through QR code or text.

1. DDP really liked this model over others because of privacy. Competitors made money off data collection.

Social equity

• Can find job boards, community events.

In passive mode, kiosk rotates 8 ads. When someone walks up to it, it unlocks and opens up for active use.

Data comes from google listings and directory. In-house massaging after that.

• Can manually audit and supplement google listings.

Fully ADA-compliant.

They are placing this on several considerations, such as what area around it looks like, where it’ll get high volume (ad income), and other factors.

Haven’t identified the corner yet, connection to power also matters (they’ll reimburse City or nearby business).

• Need to restore the street to previous condition.

Want feedback from us on where this is sited.

• Janet – what about other languages? Spanish or Arabic?

• Kiosks are multilingual – up to 32 languages. Can select for each City. All of English, Spanish, and Arabic can be on it.

Janet – this area only serves visitors, not residents through areas such as Clark Park or Western HS.

• Open to any location.
• Don’t want to site them in the heart of single-family neighborhoods.
• Don’t want to select sites that only serve on portion of a demographic.

Can’t really change kiosk look and feel too much – they can change casing or lighting on kiosk (lighting can change by event). Can tap into brand identity of neighborhood.

Deb – doesn’t see herself using this kiosk at Bagley/24th. Deb might use a kiosk downtown.

Matt – also was thinking Clark Park or Welcome Center on other side of pedestrian bridge at Bagley/18th.

Mike – second Bagley/18th, but also have they looked at aligning with Joe Louis Greenway plan (they haven’t).

Mary Clare – was hoping for Clark Park, but Bagley/18th on second thought is better.

Matt – maybe plans behind the train station aligning with Ford’s plans.

Could be more than 1 in district 6 at some point.

Mainly serving a mixture of commerce plus city resources. City likes to put out PSAs like COVID testing or census info.

Monte/Matt – can we flag green spaces around the community as well?

• There is a separate app called parks & outdoor. One for museums/culture.
• Event listing, hotel stay option.
• Can reorient order of app listing to, for instance, make green spaces or transit more important in SW Detroit.

Janet – high illiteracy rate in City of Detroit. Or technological illiteracy rate. Lots of immigrants for instance won’t be in this. Potentially seniors and others left behind.

• Mark – this is something they struggle with. Prefer kiosk to app since not everyone has a smart phone.
• This is meant to be easier to use than a smart phone for those who aren’t sure what they’re looking for.

Further questions or siting info, please reach out to Rich King:

• rking@ikesmartcity.com
• DDP contact on this: ddpkiosks@downtowndetroit.org

Parking Solutions, including Community Investment Trusts (Janet Ray)

• Survey: https://umich.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Y5nyTQ0yhyjCzI
• In all the years Janet’s been here, never had parking issues, until this year.
• Rob Dewaelsche and others have increasingly wanted to discuss parking, especially around El Club etc.
• Interviewed to 15 local stakeholders, they came up with a LOT of creative solutions.
• Maybe a mixed-use development with underground parking. Maybe airbnb’ing parking behind their home. Plenty of other ideas.
• Others want to own the a community-driven process that the community strongly steers.
• Sisters of Mercy did Community Investment Trust. Community invests in the project and they also get to profit.
• Beginning place of a planning process that might take another year or two.
• FIRST community meeting will be September 14th @ 7pm at 2nd floor of Armando’s to learn more about Community Investment Trust.
• Deb – can this also be virtual? Janet – she’d like to say yes, but maybe not simultaneously. Maybe virtual should be stand-alone. AND need to do it in multiple languages, so it may be slow and clunky. Eva Torres can help with this, ask them.
• Monte – as a community, he feels there should be a consensus to move forward with things like this. Even if we get 400 people, they don’t speak for all of SW Detroit.
• Deb – how do we reach more people around important issues? Huge problem right now. Tells an immense amount of organization and outreach and no one is paid for this.

Committee Updates

• Neighborhood Beautification Committee

• Ben Ratner moved away 🙁
• Going-away party for him.
• Had 30’ish people on garden tour.
• September 1 will have another community garden party.

501(c)3 Pursuit (Martha, Donovan)

Resident Issues

• Deb – need to remind this board that Deb, Myett, and others are working with Hubbard Richard to be ready to stand up to the Bridge Company when they had to shut that down. Have let several issues expire because of our community pushback. Need to keep organizing in and beyond Hubbard Farms.
• Will come back in September to talk about CBA work they’re doing.